A call center system is largely divided into inbound service and outbound service.
The inbound service is to receive customer-initiated telephone calls and others. In the inbound service, facisimile and electronic mail are also received in addition to telephone calls. Accordingly, utilized are operators, voice response devices, facsimile machines, and electronic mail related devices.
On the other hand, the outbound service is to handle outgoing calls from call centers. For the outgoing calls, use is made of the predictive calling function typical of the projected calling and the preview calling function for an operator to confirm a called receiver and then provide a calling service by the intention of the operator. In addition, there is also available a system provided with an inbound function for receiving only inbound calls from customers, and with a blend function that enables both services of the predictive calling function and the inbound function.
For a conventional call center system, facilities such as a PBX, voice response device, CTI server, mail server, facsimile server, and predictive calling device are purchased to construct the system in order to provide inbound and/or outbound services. This has required a significant capital investment and operations of the call center system for a long period of time to turn the system into a profit center in order to recoup the capital investment.
Furthermore, in both the inbound and outbound services, there occur variations in the services such as busy and idle periods. This has often led to such a case where effective use of the facilities is not made.